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“Sex and the City” and a new adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” highlight the new offerings this month.
Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of April’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)
‘Sex and the City’ Seasons 1-6
Starts streaming: April 1
The latest HBO original to land on Netflix is one of the network’s most popular and influential series: a fast-paced and quippy dramedy that helped prove a cable TV show could be at the center of the cultural conversation. Adapted from a Candace Bushnell newspaper column by the writer-producer Darren Star (in close collaboration with the writer-director Michael Patrick King), “Sex and the City” premiered in 1998. It stars Sarah Jessica Parker as the columnist Carrie, who meets up regularly with her friends Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) to dine at New York hot spots and dish about their love lives. With its romantic melodrama, raunchy jokes and fabulous fashions, this show has been a comfort watch for women and men for over 25 years.
‘Ripley’
Starts streaming: April 4
The writer-director Steven Zaillian becomes the latest filmmaker to adapt Patricia Highsmith’s novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” turning the book into an eight-episode mini-series that aims to capture more of the nuances of Highsmith’s slippery antihero. Andrew Scott plays Tom Ripley, a small-time New York con artist who is hired by a shipping magnate to travel to Italy and check in on the idle heir Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), a man Ripley barely knows. Clumsily at first — and then more confidently — Ripley integrates himself into the life of Dickie and his girlfriend, Marge (Dakota Fanning), before mapping out a way that he could live the couple’s jet-setting lifestyle forever. Shot in black-and-white, Zaillian’s “Ripley” takes the character back to his pulp-noir roots, emphasizing the dark desperation at his core.
‘Scoop’
Starts streaming: April 5
In 2019, Prince Andrew tried to quell a growing scandal about his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by sitting for an hourlong TV interview with BBC Two’s “Newsnight.” The interview went horribly for the prince, who suspended his royal duties not long after it aired. The movie “Scoop” is about that bombshell “Newsnight” special. Rufus Sewell plays Prince Andrew, while Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis, the journalist who calmly, persistently grilled him. The director Philip Martin and the screenwriter Peter Moffat cover the prep that the royal family and the Maitlis team put in before the conversation. “Scoop” though is primarily about Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), the producer who landed the interview by persuading all concerned that, whatever the outcome, this was a story that needed to be told, for the sake of Epstein’s victims.
‘The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem’
Starts streaming: April 5
During the 20-plus years that 4chan has been online, the website has rarely gone more than a few months without being at the center of some radical social movement — or some disturbing controversy. The directors Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones (who previously collaborated on the documentary “Feels Good Man,” about the Pepe the Frog meme) try to make sense of 4chan’s turbulent existence in “The Antisocial Network,” a film that traces how some adolescent jokes and pranks evolved into conspiracy theories, public protests and cyberterrorism. Through interviews with some of the most influential 4chan (and 8chan) users, Angelini and Jones end up covering topics as far-reaching and significant as Rickrolling, Anonymous, Occupy Wall Street, Gamergate, QAnon and the Jan. 6 riots.
‘City Hunter’
Starts streaming: April 25
Tsukasa Hojo’s “City Hunter” franchise started as a manga serial in 1985 and has since been adapted into multiple anime series and animated movies, along with video games and a few live-action movies. The latest live-action film comes from the director Yuichi Satoh and the screenwriter Tatsuro Mishima, who make it easy on “City Hunter” newcomers by starting at the beginning of the story, when the suave private detective Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) begins working with his late ex-partner’s tomboy sister Kaori Makimura (Misato Morita). The two of them patrol the flashy, modern streets of Tokyo’s Shinjuku area, looking cool as they offer help to the helpless.
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